The present invention relates to devices for personal ornamentation which include one or more flashing light sources. In particular, the invention relates to such devices which use a plurality of sequentially actuated light-emitting diodes (LED's) to achieve the ornamental or decorative effect.
The use of flashing LED's in articles for personal ornamentation is well known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,035 to Richey, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,976 to Fenton disclose decorative articles having a light-emitting diode which is flashed on and off by an oscillator circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,647 to Gomi discloses several electronic mechanisms for actuating a plurality of LED's to achieve a number of different ornamental effects.
Two important considerations are required in designing articles of personal ornamentation using LED's. The first is that the circuitry used to actuate the LED's must be small enough to be unobtrusive and easily concealable so as not to detract from the ornamental or decorative effect. The second consideration is that since the power supply for such circuits must, of necessity be a battery, the circuitry should preferably draw a minimum amount of current so as to minimize the frequency of changing the battery.
The first of the above-mentioned considerations has been met to a large extent by the use of integrated circuits such as disclosed in the above-mentioned Fenton patent. The prior art has attacked the problem of maximizing battery life by using such approaches as relatively low flashing rates, e.g., on the order of less than ten flashes per second. However, this approach is less than totally satisfactory where a high repetition rate for LED flashing is desired, especially where this involves the sequential flashing of a plurality of LED's.